What is employee burnout and what does that mean for my business?
Burnout is recognised by the World Health Organization and is defined as “A syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
The effects of IT burnout can be significant, both for individuals and organisations. Some common effects include:
1. Decreased productivity: Burnout can lead to decreased motivation, focus, and productivity, which can impact the quality and speed of work.
2. Increased errors: Burnout can lead to cognitive impairment, making it more difficult to concentrate and remember important details, which can increase the likelihood of errors and mistakes.
3. Poor job satisfaction: Burnout can lead to feelings of disillusionment and dissatisfaction with work, which can impact job performance and lead to high turnover rates.
4. Mental and physical health problems: Burnout can lead to a range of mental and physical health problems, including depression, anxiety, insomnia, and chronic illness.
The Burnout Report by Mental Health UK in January 2024 found that one in five workers (20%) in the UK needed to take time off work in the past year due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress.
This has also shown that work life balance is one of the top priorities when recruiting and retaining talent. Workplaces that prioritise mental health are becoming higher on the agenda for the younger workforce, so employers need to take action to attract and retain the future workforce.
What can be done to reduce employee burnout?
The lines between work and home life have become increasingly blurred in recent times, with a never-ending stream of emails and messages making it difficult for employees to switch off, particularly when businesses have a BYOD (Bring your own device) policy.
Most organisations rely on Microsoft Intune to manage their endpoints and ensure secure access to corporate resources. One invaluable feature within Intune that can help reduce employee burnout is Quiet time. This functionality allows IT administrators to schedule periods during which all notifications are muted on corporate devices, ensuring employees get the downtime they need. By implementing Quiet time, organisations not only foster a healthier work-life balance but also promote overall well-being, enhancing productivity and job satisfaction.
Intune quiet time policy options
There are two quiet policy types available:
Date Range
This will automatically mute Microsoft Outlook email and Teams notifications during the specified range.
This can be used to prevent notifications during public holidays by creating a policy for each date that would be required.
Days of the Week
This will automatically mute Microsoft Outlook email and Teams notifications during certain hours and/or all day on selected days of the week.
The 'Allday' setting can be used to prevent notifications on weekends. The 'Certain Hours' can be used to mute notifications outside of business hours.
What about staff who need to receive notifications during this time?
With both of the quiet time policies, you have the same scoping and assignment functions as with any other Intune policy. This can be used to exclude certain users who may need to receive notifications outside of regular business hours.
Additionally with the 'Days of the Week' policy there is a setting that can be enabled or disabled to allow users to override the quiet time policy.
We would recommend that this policy is configured globally, any adjustments are then made on exception rather than targeting this policy to a limited group.
Why is this so important?
The Burnout Report has found that one of the top alleviators of stress and workplace burnout is having a healthy work-life balance (56%). Setting boundaries to promote a healthy work-life balance is critical. Creating a business culture around work life balance can be difficult but has huge benefits when it comes to user productivity and talent retention.
How do you get started?
OneAdvanced's relationship with Microsoft goes back over 30 years, over which our Modern Workplace experts have helped numerous organisations digitally transform and embrace a better way of working.
OneAdvanced's expertise in Intune and broader Microsoft technologies can help your business seamlessly transition to a more secure and efficient endpoint management strategy. By entrusting your endpoint management and other IT needs to Advanced, you can focus on your core business, knowing that your IT infrastructure is in capable hands. Get in touch with our team today to see how we can help!